Modern day bread manufacturing involves many ingredients and chemicals .Limits are arrived for these additives by govt agencies but even then these additives may cause health problems which we are not aware . Andrew Whitley shares his thoughts on these issues.

Excerpts from article by Andrew WhitleyThe Biggest change of all occurred when the Chorleywood Bread Process was invented in the Sixties. This is the way most British bread is made to this day. It dramatically speeded up the process.
Its method was high-speed mixing, using intense energy (about six times as much as a craft baker uses to mix his dough), a plethora of additives, greatly increased yeast quantities and no fermentation time.
Before Chorleywood - indeed, for all of man’s bread-making history - bakers took time to let their dough rise (or ferment). That way, the small amount of yeast they put in could multiply and react with the flour to produce enough gas to aerate the bread.
Most bread was made in a two-stage process over 12 to 16 hours. Time ripened the dough, making it easier for the baker to handle and tastier to eat.
But advances in molecular science have revealed an even more significant role of time in bread-making.
As you allow dough to ferment, it neutralises some of the bits of wheat protein that are most likely to trigger bowel disease and other auto-immune and inflammatory reactions to gluten.
Unfortunately, almost all British bread is now made from ‘no time dough’. Which is bad news for our bowels.
Chorleywood was a triumph of efficiency: you could get from raw flour to wrapped loaf in under three hours.
But there were also the additives. Quite a few of them, in fact. Potassium bromate (now banned in the UK as a possible cancer producer), azodicarbonamide (also banned), L-cysteine hydrochloride, sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate and so on — the list was long.
To avoid too many frightening chemical names, bread labels were allowed to group the nasties under bland headings such as ‘flour treatment agent’ and ‘emulsifier’.
Some additives were belatedly banned (including the bleaching of flour with chlorine gas in 1999), but new ones filled the gap and, if anything, the list is longer today than 30 years ago.

MUMBAI: More consumers seem to be munching on Parle biscuits while sipping on their hot cuppa, which is probably why the company is said to have toppled Britannia Industries' numero uno position to become the largest selling biscuit company in India.

Last year, the Vijay and Sharad Chauhan-controlled Parle Products, which makes the ubiquitous ‘Parle-G' glucose biscuits, had attained volume leadership in the market. Now, with a total turnover of around Rs 4,000 crore coming from biscuits, Parle Products has emerged as the clear market leader, with a difference of almost Rs 1,000 crore. Britannia Industries reported a turnover of Rs 3,400 crore for the financial year 2009-10, with biscuits contributing around Rs 3,000 crore.

The Rs 5,000-crore Parle Products, which also makes confectionery products, draws 80% of its turnover from biscuits. Although Britannia Industries has disputed the fact that Parle has become the market leader, the cookie seems to be crumbling a bit for the Wadia-owned company. Going by the turnover numbers, Parle leads with a margin of Rs 1,000 crore over Britannia.

While the Chauhans did not respond to a TOI query, at least two people familiar with the matter confirmed the development. Parle Products' annual share (moving average total) in biscuits, sources told TOI, stands at around 45% as against Britannia's 38%. Historically, the biscuit pie was made up by one-third of Britannia, one-third of Parle Products and one-third of the balance share where other smaller brands lost or gained share.

In response to an email sent to Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia Industries, a company spokesperson said, "Britannia continues to lead the biscuit market in all categories except glucose, where it lost some share about a year ago and has partly recovered that. However, glucose as a category within the overall biscuit market has declined."

"Britannia has a large and diverse portfolio ranging from health & nutrition (e.g. NutriChoice Digestive, NutriChoice 5 Grain, etc.) on the one hand to delightful & indulgent products on the other (e.g. GoodDay, Treat, Bourbon, etc.), while Parle largely dominates the discounted glucose segment, whose share is declining in the overall biscuit market," the spokesperson said.

Britannia also said that The Nielsen Company, which tracks sales and market share numbers, does not cover all points of sale. "The growth rate it reflects for Britannia is, in fact, lower than the actual growth rate, by 3-4%. Relative position of Britannia and Parle, in terms of annual turnover, has remained constant over the last few years as per annual results declared by both the companies," the spokesperson said.

With ever increasing demand for information on small bakery units . I have thought of providing bakery project reports for such demand . It would answer basics of entire bakery project plan such as process ,ingredients,packaging , equipments ,labour , legal and costing etc.

Sanyo Japan s consumer electronic major manufacturer has come up with innovative product a rice cooker which would allow consumer to bake bread from rice flour which is easily available in Japan.equipment cost is around $700/-

News

TOKYO — Japan's consumer electronics maker Sanyo has launched the world's first cooker that can turn rice grains into bread -- an innovation that it hopes will be a hit across Asia.
The machine can mill a cup of rice grains into rice flour, then mixes it with water, gluten, yeast and other ingredients to bake a loaf of bread in four hours, Sanyo Electric said.
The machine is named "GOPAN" in Japan -- coined from "gohan", meaning cooked rice, and "pan", Spanish for bread. Sanyo will start exporting it to other Asian countries next year after its Japanese launch in October.
"We are eagerly working to export this to other Asian countries, mainly China and Southeast Asia, which share the culture of growing rice," said company spokeswoman Liu Yingying.
The machine would retail between 50,000 and 60,000 yen (560-670 dollars).
Wheat-free bread is good for people allergic to the grain, Sanyo said, noting that the machine can also operate without using gluten, which is taken from wheat and helps dough to rise.
Sanyo argued that another benefit would be that in Japan the cooker would increase rice consumption and change people's eating habits, helping increase the country's low food self-sufficiency ratio.
Japan, the world's second-largest economy, now produces only 40 percent of its food and buys almost all its wheat, corn and soy beans from overseas.

Victorian Premier John Brumby today cut the ribbon on Unibic’s new $44 million biscuit and cake facility, which will produce Unibic’s whole range, including the new Harvest Kitchen Soft Centre biscuits.
The new purpose-built facility is capable of producing 4.5 tonnes of goods per hour, and includes a new research and development facility, featuring a design studio, test kitchen and miniature production line.
Unibic, a Victorian company, has produced speciality biscuits, pastries and cakes for over 50 years.

The Unibic range includes an RSL-licensed ANZAC biscuit line, Weight Watchers branded baked goods, a variety of shortbreads and European-style biscuits, and the Erica’s Kitchen entertaining range. The new factory also features purpose-built technology for a new line of low-fat chips, to be released later this year.

As well as established markets in Australia and New Zealand, Unibic is growing into markets in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and India. If the new Harvest Kitchen Soft Centre product proves popular in Australia, Unibic expect to begin exports of the product from the Victorian facility.

When one talks about unique shapes and sizes of biscuit happy hippo biscuits are one which immediately comes into mind .Popular in Europe and America these happy hippo biscuits comes in milk , hazelnuts and chocolate variant s.Kinder Happy Hippos are produced and promoted by Ferrero Spa ( Famous chocolate ferrero roche )

The biscuits are of Hippo shape and consists of wafer shell with fillings like chocolate ,milk , hazelnut .

Each Hippo weighed in at 20.7g and came wrapped in a cellophane wrapper.

Creative designs can be popular and can be used to distinguish brands from competitors .